Breeze goes to Santa Monica

I took Breeze to a canine rehab center to get a second opinion about Breezes hips -to find out what could be done to help her heal from her recent injuries and try to minimize the damage from her hip dysplasia. I got a referral from my friend who has been there with her dog-she has always seemed very happy with them-and I guess now I see why! http://www.calanimalrehab.com/ The vet was Dr. Jessica Walden in Santa Monica. That is about a two hour drive from here, through east LA which was an adventure in itself. So my friend Becky and her daughters came with us. The appointment lasted close to 3 hours and they checked EVERYTHING!!! They did gait analysis, did videos of her gait, they went over all her xrays, went through her whole diet/ supplements, and they showed me a lot of exercises and stretches-and worked with me until I felt comfortable doing them. So the great news is NO SURGERY!!! We had considered a hip replacement after one vet recommended that, but all things considered we are going to treat Breeze with supplements, exercises, and see how she does. Of course all the supplements I was giving were all wrong, LOL, so we are all loaded up with some very good, very expensive supplements to help her joints. THE BAD NEWS: apparently there was a pretty good ACL injury that no one else picked up-I think we are very lucky that with the activity she has been permitted the last few weeks that we didn't totally tear that ACL.
It is not sounding very likely that Breeze will be able to do any agility and I have some real mixed feelings about that. I feel very selfish for feeling so sad about that. I am very thankful that my dog can walk, and should have a good life, and seeing some of the dogs at the rehab center and what their people were dealing with I am lucky that Breeze is basically ok. On the other side you know how you focus on odd things when you feel sad about something....yesterday when all this was sinking in I just kept thinking Breeze got to do one trial for all the work we did training, and we didn't get any pictures. Then I had to keep from crying because she will probably never get any trial pictures, and I wish I had known that would probably be her only trial. Now why was it that that I focused on-pictures of all things??? What an odd thing to think about, but sometimes you just feel what you feel and think what you think. I just am really sad to think about the cool contacts we worked so hard on, and our weaves-all those mornings of training those, the handling, and no one will ever be able to see how great we were doing. I also think it is easier to think about pictures then to worry about what the future holds for Breeze, so maybe that is why I would rather think of pictures? Anyway, I would definitely recommend the CARE center, I couldn't believe how much time they took with us to really check everything on Breeze out, and how gentle they were with Breeze and how they just took as much time as I needed so I understood everything.
So after the appointment it was right smack in the middle of rush hour so Becky, her daughters and I went down by the beach and found a very cool little Mexican restaurant and sat an let everything sink in while we enjoyed dinner. It was a very long day, very emotionally exhausting, and I am thinking the next few weeks are going to be pretty full with starting Breeze's rehab.